Eddie’s body was lean and broad with muscle, and he had an erection. Her scratch marks on his chest were healing, and only caused her a moment’s consternation.
Giving her a bold look, he said, “A song, please.”
Lyssa hesitated, thinking about her arm — and then pulled her sweatshirt over her head, and tossed it at him. “ ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love.’ ”
His smile warmed though his eyes darkened with hunger. She noticed that he did not look at her breasts or dragon scales. Just her eyes.
“I want to hear you say it, Lyssa.”
“I love you,” she told him. “I love you, and it’s not instinct. It’s me. It’s my heart. My heart loves you, and I don’t how it happened. But it did, and it’s crazy. You’re crazy to love me.”
“If you’re not the one for me, then I am crazy.” Eddie took a deep breath and hooked his fingers beneath the waistband of her sweats. “May I?”
She laughed and covered his hands — her right hand, so careful — helping him push the sweats down off her hips. He knelt as he undressed her, trailing kisses against her stomach. Lyssa closed her eyes, savoring the heat of his mouth.
He drew her to the bed. The late afternoon light cast a soft glow over their skins as they made love. Nothing mattered but his touch and smile and kiss, and she strained against him, wanting so badly to take him into her body.
“Lyssa,” he gasped, as she guided him to the right spot.
“Please,” she begged, breathless.
His eyes darkened, and he grabbed her hip, pushing into her slowly. Lyssa gasped as her body stretched around him. Eddie made a similar sound, squeezing shut his eyes as a tremor wracked him.
“You’re so tight,” he whispered. “Am I hurting you?”
“No,” she breathed, arching her hips so that he had no choice but to sink deeper. “Hard and fast, Eddie. Please.”
He groaned and thrust forward. Lyssa felt a sharp pain, but that disappeared in moments. He pulled out, then thrust again, and again, grinding into her with hard, long strokes. She clung to him, matching his rhythm, heat racing through her body into his. Smoke rose from his back, fire licking across his skin. Lyssa covered those flames with her hands — human and dragon — drawing them into herself as her muscles tightened around him.
His large hand covered her breast, squeezing, and he gathered up her leg and hitched it higher, deepening his penetration. His thrusts quickened. Lyssa gasped his name — losing control as a wild, cresting pleasure exploded through her body in one long, throbbing wave.
Eddie came with her, crying out and covering her mouth in a soul-deep kiss as his hips jerked and thrust, nearly sending her over the edge a second time.
He collapsed on top of her, both of them tangled and sweating, breathing so hard Lyssa was afraid their lungs would burst. The sheets were smoking around them.
We almost set the bed on fire. It was too ridiculous — and wonderful.
She started to giggle. A foreign sound. It had been ten years since she’d made a noise like that, but it bubbled out of her from a place of pure joy. Eddie lifted his head, staring, and she pointed at the smoke, breath hitching as she struggled not to laugh. He grinned and began laughing with her.
Their laughter faded, though, as they stared into each other’s eyes.
“I’m scared,” she told him, softly. “Love didn’t save my parents.”
“You’re such a downer. They loved each other. Focus on that.” Eddie bit his lip until it bled. “Kiss me, Lyssa.”
She hesitated. “Eddie.”
But she didn’t stop him when he dipped his head, brushing his lips over hers. She tasted his blood.
The power that flowed from him was different than any other. Before, when taking her own blood or Lethe’s, it had felt as though a wall were slamming into her. Disruptive. Painful. Overwhelming.
The energy that flowed from Eddie’s blood was just the opposite. It moved into her, through her, wrapping her in a cocoon of fire that was strong and gentle and filled with love. It was power, but a deeper power than any other she had felt, and instead of ripping her apart. . it filled her up.
Memories flashed through her mind: his pleasure, making love to her, his comfort at holding her in his arms. . his fear of not being able to protect her.
And deeper than that, she saw a little girl’s face: pale and beautiful, with long dark hair and shadowy eyes filled with mystery.
Daphne.
Lyssa sighed into that memory and began to pull away. Except, something nagged at her. Something about Eddie’s blood.
The dragon stirred, stretching its wings with a satisfied purr.
Ah, it whispered. Now his fire makes sense.
What? Lyssa asked.
She heard a low, raspy chuckle.
Somewhere, not so long ago, one of his ancestors was a dragon.
“Whoa,” she said, opening her eyes.
Eddie blinked. “What?”
She told him.
“Oh,” he said, staring. “Whoa.”
Eddie had never really questioned where his ability with fire came from, though some years back, he had finally asked his mother and grandmother if there were any truly unusual family stories. . like, anything that verged on the supernatural.
“No,” both of them had said, which was either true, or meant that someone had been very good at hiding what they were.
Of course, he’d had to accept that this gift could have come from his father’s side. But given that his father had no living relatives, except a distant cousin who lived in Spain, there really wasn’t much way to find out.
Except now he knew he had shape-shifter blood inside him. And that was odd. . but also comforting. The fire was not random. The fire was in him for a reason.
That, and Lyssa, occupied all his thoughts.
They lay tangled, talking, half-sleeping, touching each other and making out, and making love, and just. . being. It was the most miraculous few hours of his life. More healing than anything he could have imagined. Waking up with Lyssa warm and naked in his arms. .
If he lived forever, he would never forget, never take for granted, never never never let go of how deep a blessing it was that he had found her and that she was with him.
His stomach started rumbling, though. And then, so did hers.
“Rwar,” she said, scraping her teeth against his shoulder. “Fooood.”
He laughed, smoothing back her hair. “What do you want?”
“No one’s asked me that in ten years,” she said, blinking at him. And then she grinned. “What do you have?”
“I don’t even know. I usually eat out.”
Lyssa looked away from the bed, at the floor where she’d left her clothes. “All my money is in New York. I never used a debit card, but I could call and try to wire—”
“No,” said Eddie, and when she arched her brow at him, he added, “What I mean is, don’t worry about that yet.” Then, feeling even more awkward, he started to say, “That is, it’s not. . I’ve got. .”
“Money,” she said, dryly. “We really are going to have to figure out how this works.”
“Let me take care of you,” he replied. “At least for now.”
“Mmm.” Lyssa tapped her finger against his shoulder. “Just as long as you don’t ask me to call you Big Daddy.”
Eddie laughed and squeezed her backside. “Deal.”
She squirmed, giggling breathlessly, and rolled off the bed. “This is unreal.”
He pushed himself up on his elbows, admiring the view. “Tell me about it.”
Shyness entered her eyes, and she hugged her right arm against her body, backing away from him. Eddie pushed aside the sheets, and slid from the bed — following her. An appreciative smile touched her mouth as her gaze roved down his body, and desire filled him, again. He couldn’t imagine ever not wanting her.